10 Top Execs Share Their Social Media Secrets

When you’re occupying the C-suite, you may not have time to think about tweets, Facebook posts, Foursquare check-ins and Pinterest boards. But you should.

Social media is an increasingly important tool for building brands, connecting with customers and boosting customer loyalty and engagement. All of these factors can work together to increase awareness of your brand and drive new business.

Think About Community1.Encourage a Social Culture: Culture and change management is the foundation of true social business transformation – Sandy Carter, vice president, social business evangelism and sales at IBM2. Stay focused on what is it that’s resonating with the community – Drew Patterson, CEO at Jetsetter3. Businesses need to dive into these communication channels to enable their customers to communicate about – and with – brands in a true dialogue – Richard Anson, Founder and CEO at Reevoo4. Social media users can smell unauthenticity in much less than 140 characters. Enjoy yourself, have fun with the conversation, be yourself. “You can’t fake it” – Phil Libin, CEO at Evernote

Careful Content5. Understand the EQ and the IQ of everything you do and especiallygive a crap of the life time value of your customer and or community – Gary Vaynerchuk, entrepreneur and founder at VaynerMedia6. Can’t be all things to all people, but we should always try to be more things to more people– Alexander Bolen, CEO at Oscar de la Renta7. Be authentic and organic. It can’t be forced or it won’t work. And most importantly, have fun. – Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group8.Social Media is a unique space, make sure the people who are most connected, the ones who access it every day, are empowered to be leaders in this environment – Craig Leavitt, CEO at Kate Spade9. Have the courage to let go and not try to control the conversation or broadcast advertising messages every chance you get. Add value and contribute to the conversation – Geoff Cottrill, chief marketing officer at Converse10.Let yourloyal fans or followers have exclusive access to sales, offers or new lines for a limited time. A great way of rewarding your brands advocates– Mr. Tomoya Ishikawa, Executive Officer and Head of Creative and Web Design Department at Rakuten